Panel door assemblies often include external door skins with surfaces that are not made from wood, but are compression molded to simulate a wood appearance. The compression molds used to produce these door skins often provide for simulated wood grains or other discontinuities in the exterior surface of the skin, thereby to more realistically simulate a wood grain appearance and to improve adherence of subsequently applied varnish or stain to the external surface of the door skin.
The molded skins for panel doors generally include panel sections that are bordered by decorative trim that is either embossed or bossed with respect to the outer surface of the skin. There are limitations associated with compression molding wood grains into a door skin. Grain depths have generally been limited to about 3-4 thousandths of an inch, due to "undercutting" that sometimes occurs when the skin is removed from the mold. Additionally, when removing the door skin from the mold, relatively deep grains formed at right angles to steeply embossed or bossed portions of the trim deform upon contact with the mold half during removal. In order to solve this problem, many door skin manufacturers mold the skins with reduced grain depth around the panels. The grains generally are formed in the mold by acid etching a wax resist.
In order to facilitate adhesion of subsequent coatings it is known to "bead blast" the mold surface with glass beads prior door skin forming. This textures the skin during molding.
After the molding step, a stain may be applied to the surface to create a natural wood grain look. However, it has been found that artist's oil coats the door skin more evenly than most stains and provides a much better, or more realistic, wood grain appearance. Unfortunately, artist's oil is relatively expensive, it must be wiped into the door skin subsequent to application, and it requires a long time to dry, once applied. Typically, air drying takes about 24 hours.
As a final step, the exterior surface of the door skin may be coated with a clear urethane finish or an acrylic top coat.
While the above-described method of pretreating the compression molds used in door skin formation has proved satisfactory, there is a perceived need for improvement in simulating a wood grain on the outer surface of a door skin.
It is an object of the invention to provide a molded door skin that more realistically simulates a wood grain appearance for a panel door.
It is another object of the invention to reduce the relative time and cost generally required to achieve a simulated wood grain appearance for a door skin used in a panel door.